7 Surprising Facts About Sleep by Barbara Brody

Can't sleep? You have plenty of company. About half of all adults experience insomnia on occasion, and 1 in 10 battle insomnia on a regular basis, according to the Cleveland Clinic. If you fall into one of those groups, chances are you're already following the tried-and-true rules for a good night's sleep: Don't have too much caffeine (especially late in the day), don't exercise late at night, keep your bedroom at a cool, comfortable temperature, and make sure your bed, pillows and linens are comfy. Those are all good tips, but there are lesser-known things you can try to help you get more rest.

1. Set a Bedtime Alert

Most of us already use an alarm to wake up in the morning, but sleep expert Michael Breus, PhD, author of Beauty Sleep: Look Younger, Lose Weight, and Feel Great Through Better Sleep, suggests setting it at night as well. "I tell people to set their alarm for one hour before bedtime, which reminds them to begin what I call the power-down hour," says Dr. Breus, who is also a spokesman for the Zeo Personal Sleep Coach. He says you should spend the first 20 minutes of that hour taking care of any necessary chores (like walking the dog or making your kids' lunches), then spend the next 20 minutes on hygiene (washing up, brushing your teeth, etc.), and save the last 20 minutes before bed for relaxation. You don't necessarily have to meditate, if that doesn't appeal to you; you can also do deep breathing exercises, read a book or even watch a little TV (as long as it's not too stimulating). 

2. Don't Clear Your Mind

Experts say anxiety and depression top the list of reasons people have trouble sleeping. Part of the problem is that many of us just can't seem to quiet that internal voice that starts rambling on about the worries of the day. Of course, if you can clear your mind, go ahead and do it. But if that's impossible, don't force it--you'll only end up panicking about the fact that you're not sleeping, says Paul McKenna, PhD, author of the soon-to-be-released book I Can Make You Sleep. Instead, try slowing down your thoughts. "Practice saying anything and everything that comes into your mind to yourself in a slow, monotonous, drowsy tone," says Dr. McKenna. It doesn't matter if you're thinking about what to buy tomorrow at the grocery store or how a big presentation at work is going to go. If you slow everything down and talk to yourself in an even tone, you'll find it's that much harder to keep worrying (or stay awake). 

3. Count Numbers—Not Sheep

Another great way to quiet those racing thoughts is to count backward from 300 by 3s, says Dr. Breus. Unless you're a math ace, you probably won't be able to focus on anything else while you're doing this, which means you'll end up distracting yourself from your stressful thoughts. 

4. Get Up a Half-Hour Earlier

Yes, you read that right! If you're suffering from chronic insomnia, try getting up, for example, at 6:30 instead of your usual 7 wakeup time—no matter what time you fell asleep the night before. You may be extra-sleepy for a little while, but this is hands-down the most effective way to reset your body clock, says Dr. McKenna. It works because it teaches your body that it can't catch up on sleep in the morning, so eventually you'll start feeling drowsier earlier in the evening. 

5. Consider Seeing a Professional

A sleep psychologist is someone who specializes in gathering info about your emotions and your behaviors specifically as they relate to sleep. Often found at sleep centers, a sleep psychologist can usually help resolve your sleep issues in just four to six sessions, says Joseph Ojile, MD, founder of the Clayton Sleep Institute in St. Louis and a spokesman for the National Sleep Foundation. 

6. Don't Worry If You Can't Sleep Right Away

You shouldn't pass out the second your head hits the pillow. If that happens all the time, it's a sign that you're sleep deprived. (Ditto for nodding off during boring meetings and long movies.) Ideally, it should take 15 to 25 minutes from when you lie down to when you drift off to sleep, says Dr. Breus.

7. Go to Bed When You're Tired

If you're having ongoing sleep troubles, don't worry so much about the fact that it's almost midnight and you have to get up in less than seven hours. Forcing yourself to stay in bed when you're not sleepy is just going to contribute to more tossing and turning, says Dr. Ojile. Instead, get up, do something relaxing, and go back to bed whenever you do feel tired. You might end up exhausted the next day (but that was bound to happen either way under these circumstances), and the following night you should have better luck getting to bed earlier.

Poor Sleep Linked To More Colds

US researchers found that people who slept fewer than seven hours a night, and who spent more of that time awake, were nearly three times more likely to develop a cold than people who had eight hours or more of undisturbed sleep.

The study was the work of Dr Sheldon Cohen, of the Department of Psychology at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and colleagues, and was published in the 12 January issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Poor sleep is thought to be a predictor of low immunity, and thereby more readily predisposing people to the common cold, although there is no direct evidence tying sleep quality in the weeks leading up to exposure to the risk of infection. The researchers said that studies had also shown that people who slept between seven and eight hours per night had the lowest rates of heart disease, illness and early death.

For this study, which took place between 2000 and 2004, Cohen and colleagues examined the links between sleep quality and sleep duration in the weeks leading up to being exposed to a cold virus, to the susceptibility to catching it.

The researchers recruited 153 healthy male and female volunteers aged 21 to 55 years and interviewed them every day for fourteen days to find out how long they had slept the previous night, how efficient their sleep had been, that is what percentage of the time in bed was actually spent sleeping, and whether they felt rested. The researchers then worked out the average quantities of sleep duration and sleep efficiency for each person for the 14 nights.

The volunteers then went into quarantine and took nasal drops containing the common cold virus (rhinovirus). They were kept under close observation for signs of a cold during the day before their exposure and for 5 days afterwards. They also gave mucus samples during this observation period, which were tested for virus cultures, and 28 days or so later they gave a blood sample that was tested for antibody response to the cold virus.

Before the 14 days of monitoring, each participant also underwent a "pre-challenge" examination, where the researchers obtained information about potential confounders such as virus-specific antibody levels in their blood, demographics, body mass index, psychological variables and health behaviours.

The results showed that:

• The less a person slept, the more likely he or she was to develop a cold (there was a graded association between infection rate and average sleep duration).
• Participants who slept fewer than 7 hours were 2.94 times more likely to develop a cold than those who had 8 hours or more sleep.
• The more efficiently a person slept (more of the time in bed actually spent asleep), the less likely he or she was to develop a cold (i.e. there was also a graded association between sleep efficiency and rate of infection).
• Participants whose sleep efficiency feel below 92 per cent were 5.50 times more likely to develop a cold than those whose efficiency was 98 per cent or more.
• Feeling rested was not linked to rate of infection.
• These relationships could not be explained by the potential counfounders such as levels of virus-specific antibodies beforehand, demographics, the season of the year, body mass index, socioeconomic status, health behaviours, and psychological variables.

Cohen and colleagues concluded that:

"Poorer sleep efficiency and shorter sleep duration in the weeks preceding exposure to a rhinovirus were associated with lower resistance to illness."

The researchers also looked at separate components of illness and how they linked to the variables they measured.

"When the components of clinical illness (infection and signs or symptoms) were examined separately, sleep efficiency but not sleep duration was associated with signs and symptoms of illness," they wrote, but "neither was associated with infection."

"A possible explanation for this finding is that sleep disturbance influences the regulation of pro-inflammatory cytokines, histamines and other symptom mediators that are released in response to infection," they suggested, recommending that seven to eight hours sleep a night would appear to be a reasonable target.

The editors noted that the study was supported by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and by supplementary funds provided by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Network on Socioeconomic Status and Health.

Sleep Habits and Susceptibility to the Common Cold."
Sheldon Cohen; William J. Doyle; Cuneyt M. Alper; Denise Janicki-Deverts; Ronald B. Turner.
Archives of Internal Medicine Vol. 169, No. 1, pp 62-67, January 12, 2009.

Lack of Sleep Increases Risk of Heart Attack.

A new study conducted on more than 1,255 men and women patients with high blood pressure, aged between 33 to 97-years, with 70 as the average age, suggests that subjects who did not get the standard 7.5 hours of sleep and witnessed elevated levels of blood pressure on falling asleep, were 4 times as likely to suffer a stroke, fatal or non-fatal heart attack or die suddenly of cardiac arrest. They had a 68% higher risk of any one of these cardiovascular complications, compared to their better-rested counterparts.

The study conducted at Jichi Medical University in Japan, Columbia University Medical Centre, New York City and Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, N. Y. and published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, saw researchers follow their subjects over a 50-month period, during which they compiled data on their sleep duration, their day and night blood pressure, including cardiovascular history.

However, it should be noted that only sleep deprived study subjects who failed to see the normal blood pressure dip that occurs overnight were at risk. Others who slept less than 7.5-hours, but did not witness a spike in their overnight blood pressure, like their counterparts who slept longer, without experiencing heightened levels of overnight blood pressure, were not at risk of a higher rate of heart disease.

The study findings confirm what doctors have known for long: chronic sleep deprivation results in a number of health problems like coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity. Therefore, researchers say, these findings make it imperative that doctors with high blood pressure patients should inquire about their sleep patterns for risk assessment of high blood pressure patients.

Researchers suspect lack of sleep results in increased nervous system activity during the day, which tends to place undue stress on the cardiovascular system. According to study leader, Dr. Kazuo Eguchi of Jichi Medical University, Japan, non-dipping overnight blood pressure is tied to increased nervous system activity during the day, suggesting the combination could have an "interactive effect to increase cardiovascular risk".